Billions of pounds of polymers are produced every year. A large part of these polymers comprise ethylene, where said ethylene is a majority of said polymers based on weight (hereafter "ethylene polymers"). A particularly important type of ethylene polymer is called linear, low density, polyethylene (hereafter "LLDPE"). LLDPE is a polymer of ethylene and at least one olefin. This ethylene polymer is especially important in film applications where its unique properties are very useful. LLDPE can be make by several different catalysts, however, it is most preferred when the LLDPE is made from a Ziegler catalyst due to the fact that this catalyst produces a LLDPE that has superior properties.
Currently, there are several commercial processes that produce ethylene polymers. However, each of these processes have certain limitations. For example, one commercial process for producing ethylene polymers is called the slurry process. This process can be conducted in a loop reactor. However, this slurry process conducted in a loop reactor cannot produce all of the ethylene polymers desired. In particular, it cannot produce a LLDPE with a Ziegler catalyst. This is because Ziegler catalysts do not incorporate hexene, or octene, into the polymer very well. Chromium and metallocene catalysts can be used to produce LLDPE in a loop slurry reactor, but these polymers have inferior performance compare to LLDPE's produce from Ziegler catalysts.
Consequently, the inventors provide this invention to solve this problem.